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“Giving little dry leaf aroma, this tea unfurls slowly and begins in an incredibly mild manner. I stuck with a safe five grams, but again found myself wondering if I should crank up the leaf volume...”
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“Opened this tea tonight, a free sample that has been waiting nearly a year for its debut.
Started with 3.5 gram in a small gaiwan (75mL), flash rinsed then sat 1 minute before first infusion of...”
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“Finally came around to trying out this cake. Been sitting i my cupboard for over a year ^^
But my tradition of sipping sheng whenver i watch the big bang theory is going strong!
I used 5.5grams in...”
Read full tasting note

From Yunnan Sourcing

You Le Zhi Chun (攸乐之春 aka “Spring of You Le”) is the second tea cake created under the new Yunnan Sourcing / Rui Cao Xiang label. This label is a co-project between Yunnan Sourcing “Yun Zhi Yuan” (云之源) and our Korean counter-part “Rui Cao Xiang” (瑞草香). During our extensive travels and mao cha tastings in Banna during the Spring of 2009 we came across this exquisite first flush mao cha. It is entirely first flush of spring 2009 mao cha from 100-200 year old trees on You Le Mountain in Xi Shuang Banna.

You Le Mountain (aka Ji Nuo mountain基诺山) is situated east of Jing Hong city about halfway between Jing Hong and Yi Wu. The tea was picked and processed entirely by hand by the growers themselves in the the village of Long Pa (龙怕). The tea is tippy and healthy and is covered with downy silver fur. The raw material is almost entirely intact leaf and bud sets and so stone-compression was used to preserve the natural beauty of this tea.

The brew itself is full and round. The very characteristic You Le taste is present, fragrant with some floral notes… sweet and full in the mouth but with a vegetal bitterness present. An excellent single-estate Long Pa tea! Just 100 kilograms produced in total!

4 Tasting Notes

Giving little dry leaf aroma, this tea unfurls slowly and begins in an incredibly mild manner. I stuck with a safe five grams, but again found myself wondering if I should crank up the leaf volume for what proved to be a very subtle tea. By the fifth or sixth steeps, when this tea finally began to push out its full essence, what came through was heavy on the bean-based oligosaccharides, fresh wood chips (think balsam, birch, and hemlock), and high floral herbs a la lavender-scented cotton, laundry detergent, and foxglove. All very enjoyable, but reserved and distant. An underlying strong wet moss and earthen floor pushed up from beneath.

Most notable for me in both this tea and the Bu Lang was the intense parching nature of the finish. That cottony, dry wood, sand, and hot moisture-less air experience has been a new kind of exit in puerh for me. It’s not the most pleasant, as it rasps at the throat and leaves me thirsty, not quenched. In a way, it also lets the classically enjoyable lingering and swelling finish evaporate more quickly.

Opened this tea tonight, a free sample that has been waiting nearly a year for its debut.

Started with 3.5 gram in a small gaiwan (75mL), flash rinsed then sat 1 minute before first infusion of about 10 seconds, at 205 degrees. The first infusion is delicate, light, probably could have been longer—a little fruity, a little sweet, a little floral. Very nice. 2nd infusion 20 seconds, a little more earthy along with the same floral, fruity, sweet, anise. Strong bitterness comes out in the 3rd infusion, lost track of the infusion time, but can confirm that the infusion was quite dark yellow, and that the bitterness receded appropriately with a 2 fold dilution, and the sweet and strong anise/floral/fruity flavors returned.

A 4th infusion, about 15 seconds—this really needs very short infusions still due to higher than my usual leaf-to-water ratios, because the sample bit of beeng was rather large—and the typical young sheng profile is back.

A few more infusions later, it is clear that this is a nice young sheng, but it requires careful attention to keep the bitterness down to the low level I prefer.

Preparation

One more offering from Dag Wedin. This is a Raw Puerh, with beautiful large budsets, & a tangy spicy aroma! I went ahead & used the entire 7G sample in my yixing, combining 2 pours at a time in my favorite cups (or at least one of my favorite, there are so many).

Green beans, orange peel bitterness, fresh eucalyptus, & some kind of floral, a thick sensation, cannabis after-aroma, accompanied by a great tea buzz, the wonderful head clearing kind. I really believe teas such as this are beneficial for allergies, & this will be a pleasant head-space for my taichi class tonight.
Thanks Dag!

Finally came around to trying out this cake. Been sitting i my cupboard for over a year ^^
But my tradition of sipping sheng whenver i watch the big bang theory is going strong!

I used 5.5grams in a 90ml celadon gaiwan.
wash/10s/15s/25s/30s/30s

Mild smoth start. This is a young sheng, still the flavour is very clean and has some complexity to it. Yet i found i have to steep it for 25-30s to get that small bite of bitter i enjoy with shengs. I might have to purchase an older sheng in the near future. I do love the insanely powerful shengs that just explodes with flavour! The ones where you can do multiple 10s steepings and no longer unless you want it very bitter.

Got my eyes on the 2002 Yong Pin Hao yiwu sheng. Tried a sample a while back and was impressed!

Another thought just struck me. Why dont i drink more sheng and good mao-cha. Everytime i do i think “wow this is good tea” I think the world of sheng will be my next project since i feel just about done exploring yunnan tea.
More assams, taiwan black tea, korean green and Sheng will be this years main attractions. Perhaps i will manage to get a hold of some japanese white as well!